Today, was a challenging day for a majority of the group. Even before the day started, we all woke up around midnight to a combination of blasting winds, a dreadful rainfall, and some of the loudest thunder I've ever heard, that would shake the ground. Unfortunately, one of my stakes loosened and part of my rainfly was flapping like crazy and got the ground of my tent soaking wet. This made it very challenging to fall back to sleep, even though I was exhausted from riding over 100 miles yesterday. The thunder became annoying when it would seem like it passed over but you would be surprised with a huge bolt of lightning that felt like it was only a few feet from your tent.
This made for a slow start for the crew as we stopped at the gas station for a quick snack before starting the day and we all only had about 5 hours of sleep. We planned that we would do an 80 mile day if we were feeling good, or do 60 miles if we needed to. Sean, Evan, and I began safely riding on the interstate to get to breakfast that was about 16 miles in. There were a couple steep climbs to get there that were challenging because my legs were still sore from the previous day, but Evan pulled the whole way there which made it easier.
As soon as we pulled into breakfast, we got word that the other group had not left the gas station because Max's tire had a huge hole that could not be repaired. We made a plan to let the other group wait in town until the bike store opened, then they would get a new tire and in the meantime, Sean, Evan, and I stayed at breakfast until the other group got on the road. As we waited, I felt my legs starting to relax and cool down even though we still had at least 40 more miles left in the day. This made it really hard to get back on the bike and to leave the air conditioned diner as we headed out towards the rolling hills of North Dakota when we heard the other group started biking.
Cole pointing to “Salem Sue”, a giant cow statue on a hill top in New Salem, ND
The scenery was amazing!! I couldn't stop looking at the huge amounts of green hills that went as far as the eye could see. We hit a couple more steep hills before we made it to New Salem for lunch. My group spent a lot of time there having lunch, drying our tents from the previous night, and waiting for the other group to catch up so we could discuss how far we wanted to go for the day. After discussing together, we decided it would be best to only do about 30 more miles and have a longer mileage day tomorrow. We all made it to the campsite in Glen Ullin and got some dinner before nearly all the restaurants and markets in town closed.
Looking back on the day, it was tough because we had long breaks that messed with our groove for the day and the other group couldn't start riding until around 11:00 AM. We all still pushed on and were able to do 63 miles together. As I biked past miles and miles of fields I couldn't help but realize that the world is so much bigger than I ever thought. This trip has really taught me that you might be small compared to the size of the world, but you can make the biggest impacts just by going on a bike trip, like we are.
Signing off for now, Cole Malinchock
